


Shock and Awe

by dreamiflame



Series: War and Wonder [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-14 00:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11771664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame
Summary: James isn't answering his phone during an intense battle for the Avengers. Concerned, Diana gathers up her teammates and goes to help.





	Shock and Awe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



> Thanks to my beta for cheerleading and helpful suggestions.

Diana watched the muted television with narrowed eyes, focusing on the black and silver streak she could see flying above the chaos on screen. She pressed her phone to her ear and listened to the rings. Bruce’s hack into the U. N.’s surveillance footage might be perfect, but that just gave her more to worry about.

“Hi, you’ve reached James Rhodes,” said the message, and Diana hit end. James wasn’t answering, and the Avengers were struggling. Already the Vision was surrounded, a dozen of their Hydra opponents working together to try to bring him down.

War Machine might be flying free now, but the tide was against them, and Diana had never been one for watching from the sidelines.

She pulled her hair out of its elegant knot and hit another contact.

“Bruce? Diana. Are you watching this?”

Bruce rumbled assent from her phone, and Diana shed the sleek, buttoned down look she wore for work. Her tiara held back her hair, and her armor was as comfortable as her own skin, after all these years.

“I think they need a hand,” she said, and settled her shield on her arm.

*

The War Machine armor dodged left on its own, and Rhodey belatedly got his arm up in time to fire a return shot from his shoulder cannon. “Watch out!” Tony snapped in his ear, and Rhodey rolled his eyes as he flipped to target a machine gun setup.

“Relax, Tony,” he said. “The new armor’s working just fine.”

Better than fine, really: Tony had outdone himself. Between the specially augmented legs that let Rhodey walk as though his spine had never been hurt, to the near inexhaustible ammunition supply, War Machine had never been sleeker, tougher, or harder to hit.

But that wasn’t stopping Tony from clucking over Rhodey like a mother hen over her chick.

Rhodey swallowed a laugh at the mental image, and narrowly dodged a projectile hurtling toward him. Good god, were they throwing rocks now? And how were there still so many of them? The U.N.’s intel had been that this was a small Hydra funded terrorist cell, easily cleaned out after Tony’s old weaponry was neutralized.

The intel was proving itself to be more false with each passing moment.

Vision glowed bright yellow in Rhodey’s peripheral vision, and he winced, twisting his face away. A moment later a shockwave tossed Rhodey like a rag doll, leaving him scrambling for balance until the suit’s dampers managed to compensate.

For four seconds, he was falling again.

Then the boosters caught, and he swerved out of the path of another rock, lifting up into the sky, away from the ground.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Rhodey took two deep breaths, and frowned as a familiar ringtone chimed in his helmet.

Diana. Again. Fifth time today, since the fight had started.

Feeling a little guilty, he rejected it again. For all that he could still hardly believe he was dating a woman as amazing as Diana, he didn’t really have time right now.

And it wasn’t like his identity was a secret. Diana probably knew he was working. So why did she keep calling?

The enemies got lucky, and Rhodey grunted as a rock struck him on the back. “No damage,” said his version of Friday, and Rhodey huffed out a breath. He couldn’t let himself be distracted. He’d call Diana back after the battle.

Another flash lit up the valley he was flying over, and Rhodey whistled as the heads up display showed him the stats on the blast. 

“Tony, you holding out on me?” he called. “I don’t have anything like that.”

“Neither do I,” said Tony, and there was something in his voice that had Rhodey dropping down to fly at Iron Man’s six. “We have some new players on the board.”

Sure enough, there were three individuals Rhodey had never seen before performing a flanking attack on the insurgents the Avengers had been sent to subdue. A man in black armor, a man in- were those fish scales?- a streak of red that made Rhodey think he’d miscounted how many newcomers there were, and a woman with a sword. And a shield.

“Is that Sif?” he asked, and shot a grenade into the group trying to sneak up on the black caped figure. “Are these Thor’s friends?”

“I don’t think so,” Tony said slowly, and dropped down to pick up one of the enemy and drop him back onto his comrades from much higher up. “But they seem to be on our side.”

With the help of the newcomers, the Avengers managed to turn the tide of the fight, and after a short time, the Hydra agents turned and began to flee. Rhodey drifted down slowly and landed with barely a thump, grinning like a fool at his display. The new armor was amazing.

The black clad newcomer stepped forward, and this close Rhodey could see he had a bat theme to his costume. “War Machine,” the man said.

“And you are?” Tony asked, dropping out of the sky to land next to Rhodey.

“Batman,” said the man, and Rhodey rolled his eyes, thankful the helmet hid his face. “This is Aquaman,” (the one in fish scales) “and The Flash.”

The red streak turned out to be a person after all, and Rhodey was reminded of poor Pietro. Guess he hadn’t been unique after all.

“And that’s Wonder Woman,” Batman continued. Rhodey turned to see better as the sword wielding woman joined them, and nearly fell over.

“Diana?” he said.

Diana tilted her head, that almost smile tipping up the corners of her mouth. “You should have answered your phone.”

Rhodey hit the face release and coughed as smoke hit him in the nose once the air filter was removed. “You’ve been Wonder Woman this whole time?”

“Longer than you know,” she said, and took his arm to lead him away. “Let me tell you a story.”

*

Later, much later, Rhodey stretched his legs out on Diana’s couch with a sigh. Tony had greatly improved the leg braces he’d made to help Rhodey walk again, but they still made his lower back ache from their unfamiliar weight.

Diana nestled against his side, her hair tickling his nose. “So now you know.”

“I still can’t believe you’re older than my grandmother,” Rhodey muttered into her hair, and kissed her temple. “And I thought Cap was the oldest person I knew.”

“I wasn’t sure how to tell you before,” Diana said, and Rhodey took her hand, raising her fingers to his lips.

“You can always tell me anything,” he said, and she smiled like sunlight at him. “The armor’s pretty sexy, too.”

Diana laughed and squeezed his hand. 

“That’s not the point of it,” she said.

“I know,” Rhodey said, and rested his cheek on her hair. It was a lot to take in, but it was amazing just the same. For all that he’d spent several years now being a superhero, it was still humbling to know his girlfriend was just as good at it.

Probably better, actually, given how much longer she’d been at it. Rhodey lifted his head as a thought occurred to him.

“Hey, does that mean you knew Cap during the War? Did you fight in that one?”

Diana shook her head. “No. I knew of the Howling Commandos, of course, everyone did, but I never met them.”

“Good,” Rhodey said, and kissed her softly. He’d seen pictures of Cap’s girl during the war, and it wouldn’t have been any kind of fair if Captain America had been seeing two gorgeous brunettes back then.

Her lips were soft and sweet as ever against his, and they curled into a real smile before she moved away. “And in the future, answer your phone, James. It’s nice not to have to guess if I’m needed.”

“Yes, dear,” Rhodey said, and smiled when she laughed.


End file.
